Altering the future
by CrayolaCreation
Summary: The gang are back for one last adventure, Clyde and Rani are ready to start the sixth form, only when their school mysteriously closes they are enrolled at Waterloo Road along with Skye where the Xiphoids are wreaking havoc, but with a boy that looks just like Luke, and four mysterious deaths that might be related, the Xiphoids are not the biggest worry on their minds...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer I don't own Waterloo Road or the Sarah Jane Adventures. This is set after series 5 of the Sarah Jane Adventures and during series 8 of Waterloo Road (before Michael, Sian, Chalky, Scout leave and before Tom dies)**

Chapter 1.

The news screen flickered as the television slowly came to life, the room contained two people, one young girl who was messing about with her cornflakes as she examined them, noting that each cornflake was more or less the same size, the milk was splashing out of the bowl, but no-one took any notice as she quickly mopped it up with her sleeve. The other person in the room could easily be mistaken as her mother, but she wasn't- to most people she was her foster mother, but no papers had been sighed, they had been thrown together in a whirlwind adventure curtsey of fate.

"Yesterday evening, two bodies were found dead near a street in Rochdale," the woman looked up from her newspaper, a blurred image came into focus, there was one girl, lying on the ground, her eyes were closed and she was clearly unconscious, there was a boy who looked just over twenty trying his hardest to position her in the recovery position, sadly his attempts died to vain. The sight was horrific, it was hard to determine what the cause of their deaths had been, the police had decided it was a hit and miss, curtsey of drunk driving but when they checked the car afterwards the front seat was vacant, and clearly the driver had seen a golden opportunity to leave the scene…

"The two people have now been identified as Felicity Mellor and Philip Ryan," the names meant nothing to Sarah Jane Smith, they were just two young adults who had been caught up in a tragic accident, "the driver of the vehicle was nowhere to be seen, but we also have evidence that suggests that they were targeted, both Felicity and Philip went to Waterloo Road, along with fellow pupils; Maxine Barlow, Denzil Kelly and Tasha Lefton. Just a few years back Maxine Barlow tragically died when she was shot for breaking up with her boyfriend, and last year Denzil Kelly died in a road accident, when a lorry was driving twice over the speeding limit, and just a few months ago Tasha Lefton died of unknown causes, all these people attended Waterloo Road in the year 2009-2010, none of these deaths proved to be an accident, the question is, has someone got a grudge against these Waterloo Road pupils?" This certainly showed the two how to put a spin on a story; it was just a mere coincidence that they happened to go to the same school; nothing more, nothing less.

But Sarah-Jane couldn't help the worry from rising up her throat, supposing they were targets? No child deserved to be targeted, no child deserved to have the plan of their death chalked up on a chalk board curtsey of someone's evil plan. It could just as easily been; Luke or Clyde or Rani or even Skye, in this day and age no-one was safe, no matter how old or young. Sarah-Jane shivered she could remember the day Maxine Barlow's death had been in the papers, it had been a day filled with tears, and she had been fiercely protective of Luke several weeks after it happened, it just reminded her of how precious life was.

"Sarah-Jane, why do people do this?" Skye asked, as she placed her now empty bowl into the dishwasher, before rubbing the table top with her sleeve once more.

"Why do people do what?" Sarah Jane said absentmindedly.

"Well, the women on the TV said that they were targeted," Skye continued, "but why did they mean to kill them?" Skye finished, even though she had only been on Earth for a few moths she did her best to grasp hold of everything she learnt concerning Earth, but she still had trouble understanding why people died for no reason.

"Well, in the world there are bad people and good people," Sarah-Jane said, putting the most difficult and complex answers into a simple single sentence, the way she described it made it sound black and white, but in the world there was a lot of grey, "and the bad people want to hurt the good people," she finished, she hated summing it up like that, but the problem was that people nearly always had a reason to want to hurt others, only news reports didn't explain things like that.

"But why?" Skye persisted.

"Well…" Sarah-Jane began pondering on what to say, but her thoughts crashed as the door banged open, as a gust of wind almost pulled the door off his hinges. Two teenagers came into view, they were both around seventeen years old, one had a serious look on her face but the other one had a goofy grin on his face. The two people in question were of course Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra.

"Hey Sarah-Jane, hey Sparky," Clyde said, hi-fiving Skye as she gave a smile symmetrical to his own.

"Hi Sarah-Jane, ready for school Skye?" Rani said, "Dad was acting well weird this morning, what you think of that news article that claimed that someone had a grudge against Waterloo Road pupils?" She asked sitting down whilst Sky attacked her hair with a hairbrush.

"Oh, from what I can tell, it's a cover up of a story that they want to be kept a secret," Sarah-Jane replied, the idea itself was simply ludicrous, there was no other explanation, it was just a mere coincidence that all the people who died had happened to go to the same school.

"Really? Do you think you'll go undercover?" Rani said.

"Maybe," was the simple one word answer that Sarah-Jane gave, "now off to school you lot," she said as she adapted into the role of the mother. The three went to school leaving Sarah- Jane to stare at the television screen that had lost its signal once again…

* * *

Melissa Ryan was in shock, this was by far the worst thing that had happened in her life so far, and a lot of bad things had happened during her life. Philip Ryan was her son, and for a long time he was all she had left, they had been through tough times but against all odds they had a close mother-son bond that most parents were envious of. However a few years back put a real strain on their bond, when she fell hopelessly in love with one of the teachers at his school, she lied to him and put Philip under pressure of knowing a secret that could put a strain on everything, she left Philip, abandoned him, she even went as far as to blame him for the relationship not working out…

Yet somehow he forgave her, she didn't know why she didn't deserve his forgiveness, their relationship was like treading in a field full of bombs, they still loved in each other but they were not a long way from hating each other…

He may have said that he forgave her, but his heart never allowed him too, he got good GCSE and A-Level results despite everything, he even managed to go to university and he was just one year away from finishing his degree… The last words Melissa spoke to him rattled through her brain.

_"She doesn't deserve your kindness," she yelled as Philip announced that he was going to comfort one of his old classmates; Flick Mellor who had recently been dumped by her boyfriend who went by the name of Joseph Flint. _

_"Well, she needs my help," Philip persisted, that's what separated him from his mother, despite his misgivings with Flick he was willing to help her in times of needs. _

_"Well do that then! Let her walk all over you," Melissa replied, the door slammed shut with a sudden gust of wind, neither of them knew that, that would be the last conversation that the two of them shared. _

Melissa stood staring out of the window, almost twelve hours had passed since the accident, and Flick had died instantly, whilst Philip had been taken to the hospital he was there for an hour before he too joined Flick… Since then she hadn't spoken a word, it was all her fault if only she could turn back time…

Eddie Lawson was worried despite the fact that he never really loved Melissa in the way a girlfriend loves a boyfriend, he still cared for her, she hadn't eaten, drank or talked to anyone since she heard the news, she was taking it a lot worse than anyone had expected, the saddest part was that his daughter; Hope had no idea what had happened… To her Philip was still at university, if only that was the truth…

* * *

Rani, Skye and Clyde walked up to school in silence; silence dominated the trio with the odd occasion of Clyde cracking a joke to lighten up the mood. It was Skye's first week and she was still struggling to fit in, living with Sarah-Jane had been a blissful dream and going to school was a sharp awakening to reality, she was just beginning to understand that there was still a lot more she didn't know…

"What did the bacon say to the tomato?" Clyde asked as they strolled through the school gates.

"I don't know," Skye and Rani replied in unison.

"Lettuce get together!" Clyde said laughing, Rani gave a feeble laugh and Skye laughed until her worries melted. When they got to school, they saw a very frantic looking Mr Chandra, who ushered them into the hall, here was where the threesome parted, Skye went to join the lower school and Rani and Clyde went to sit and the back with the sixth form.

Mr Chandra stood up in front of the school, his knees were knocking and he was struggling to compose himself, "I'm sorry to say but the school will be closed until further notice," he whispered and whispers broke out throughout the school, no explanation was given and Rani was already planning to wheedle an explanation out of him, something was up she was sure of it.

**A/N Well that's it :) Please review/ add to favourites/ alerts to show if you've enjoyed this story, what do you think of it all? Why did the school suddenly close? And are Philip and Flick's death connected to Tasha, Maxine and Denzil's? Is there some gang targeting Waterloo Road pupils? (Tasha appears briefly in series 4, she is diabetic and didn't take her insulin) **

**Reviews make me over the moon, and alerts/favourites send me to cloud nine :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two. **

"Did you know about this?" Clyde asked Rani, her eyes were itching with curiosity, and he took her open mouthed expression as a 'no' it was all she could not to get up, but the teacher's beady glare was forced upon them. Meanwhile Mr Chandra ran outside, as if he was about to be sick, he seemed to be acting surprisingly out of character, Rani had never seen her father act like this before, and that was what worried her.

"No he didn't mention anything to me," replied Rani bewildered there seemed no logical explanation to her father's previous explanation, she had a close relationship with her father, the type that parents were envious of and they told each other everything, so why did he leave out this major piece of news?

"But on the bright side there's no school!" Clyde said dismissing the mystery; Rani rolled her eyes trust Clyde to put school work on the bottom of the list, despite the fact that the school had closed, her parents as would his would enrol them in a new school.

"Clyde you do realise that we will be enrolled at a different school right?" She said.

"Clyde, Rani!" A voice called, as the newcomer received death-glares from the head of sixth form, for daring to leave her seat in the middle of an assembly, although technically it had finished since the head teacher had left for no apparent reason. "Why is the school going to be closed?" Skye asked her eagle eye brimming with curiosity.

"I don't know Skye," Rani insisted, as she saw her father out of the corner of her eye, she made a mental note to find some excuse to follow him, "I think you should go back Mr Wilding looks worried," she said indicating towards the front of the hall, sadly she wasn't buying Rani's excuse.

"Yeah, but he's your father!" Skye protested, ignoring the sandy-haired teacher who was disappointed that the choir wouldn't be able to perform for the assembly, since the entire hall had morphed into chaos. Luckily she didn't have to reply as her form tutor ushered Skye away towards a very relieved Mr Wilding who had been unaware she was missing.

"Why did you do that?" Clyde said.

"Do what?" Rani replied quickly.

"Do that, you tried to get rid of Skye," Clyde continued.

"I needed to do that, we're getting out of here…" Rani said quickly dodging the crowds of pupils with ease, Clyde followed her but with less gracefulness, within five seconds he had already bumped into a teacher, he apologised quickly before Rani had disappeared from view, luckily she was still in sight.

"Rani, what are you doing?" He said, Rani didn't reply but her eyes widened, just a few metres away was her father, but he was walking towards a van, no scratch that he was being dragged to a van, as if there was some invisible person with an invisible tether, he was struggling to escape, but no help would be given even if anyone saw him. To any person passing by he was a teacher walking towards a van out of his own free will, but his face was scrunched up in pain and he was doing all that he could to escape.

"Clyde? Clyde?" Rani said, noting down the registration plate, "What's happening?" She said sounding like a little kid who didn't know what was going on.

Clyde was too busy messing about with his phone to make much notice, he was staring at the van intently through the lens of his mobile, but even when he did reply it seemed like some sort of code for Clyde to crack a joke in tough situations.

"Well, it looks like someone is wearing an invisibility cloak and is dragging your father along for the ride…" Clyde said light-heartedly trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Not funny Clyde," Rani said, "look something's pulling him- only we can't see him, come on," she said as she jumped into the back of the van, her father had been forced to sit in the front seat against his will, but she struggled to see the person driving.

"Are you mad?" Clyde said as Rani helped hoist him up onto the van, "no scratch that you're completely mental…" Rani ignored him, as she pulled out her phone.

"Look, I'm going to text Sarah-Jane the registration plate of the van, and with the help of Mr Smith she can track where we are going…" Rani sad, sliding her hands over the miniature keyboard of her phone, hopefully Mr Smith would be able to track them with his hi-tech Satellite computer. "I don't suppose you were doing anything useful with your phone," she said pressing the send button before snatching the phone out of Clyde's grasp, and searching for anything that might be of use to the two…

"As a matter of fact," Clyde said grabbing his phone and turning it of quickly, "I was, while you were having a panic attack, I was videoing the whole 'Mr Chandra is being dragged away into a van' scenario," he said smugly.

"Okay," Rani said, "well, quick thinking Clyde, do you have any idea where we're going?"

* * *

The young twelve year old girl with bushy hair bursts into the attic, that contained both weird and wonderful things, and there was the odd occasion where you would come across something that was both weird and wonderful at the same time.

"Hi Sarah-Jane!" The girl said chirpily whizzing around on her chair.

"Skye," Sarah-Jane said suspiciously, "shouldn't you be at school?"

"Yeah but it's closed until further notice," Skye said, "yippee!" She said whizzing around on the chair at top speed, this certainly was a time to celebrate, at that precise moment the phone beeped, and Sarah-Jane jumped throwing the phone towards the ceiling like a hot potato.

"Skye be serious," Sarah-Jane said hushing the over-excited twelve year old, as she reached out to grab the piece of paper that was lying in Skye's outreached hand, Skye however carefully managed to catch the phone that was flying from the air at top speed.

"It's from Clyde and Rani," She announced before reading the message, "it says, on the back of the lorry, something strange is happening, registration number HJ12 QWA," she finished before putting the phone down.

"In the back of a lorry?!" Sarah-Jane replied outraged, before walking towards what may seem to appear to be a normal wall, "Mr Smith we need you!" She said urgently, two of her companions had just been unleashed in a world full of danger.

"Sarah-Jane, how may I help you?" Mr Smith said.

"Look, Clyde and Rani are in the back of a lorry, they suspect that something weird is happening can you track the van?" Sarah-Jane asked supplying Mr Smith with the registration plate.

"Tracking van, HJ12 QWA 90% complete," Mr Smith said, suddenly it stopped, and Mr Smith powered off, like a virus had entered his system…

"Mr Smith? Mr Smith?" Sarah Jane asked, but Mr Smith was not replying, he had been powered off, she scanned the registration code once more but it seemed nothing out of the ordinary, "whoever they are, they're clever but not clever enough," she announced, grabbing her phone from Skye, and dialling Clyde's number, "Clyde, Rani?"

* * *

"Rock, paper, scissors one, two three!" Clyde said, as his fingers quickly adapted to the current situation; how to win, "Ha! I win rock beats scissors!" He announced sticking his tongue out at Rani, who in turn rolled her eyes.

"Okay so we could be on the edge of some super-secret mystery, and you're playing rock, paper scissors?" Rani said annoyed, Clyde could be so childish at times.

"Yeah, we don't know how long we're going to be in this van for, so why not? It passes the time!" Clyde exclaimed, not bothering to piece all the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Gosh, Clyde, grow up would you? Life isn't all fun and games! We don't know what happened to my father, we don't know where we're going, now is not the time to be playing games!" Rani said seriously before noting something, "we're stopping…" Clyde continued to mimic Rani's tone in a childish manner, life may not be all about fun and games but all work and no play made Jack (or in this case Rani) a dull boy.

It was only then, that Clyde's phone began to ring, he answered it in his usual jokey tone, "oh sorry, Clyde isn't here right now, he's been replaced by the serious Mr Langer, please leave a message after the tone beep," after this Clyde covered his phone and tried his hardest to muffle his laugh, this joke never got old!

"Clyde quit messing around," Sarah-Jane said somewhat irritably, Rani gave her best 'I told you so' look, "look do you know where you are?" She asked.

"Why? I thought Mr Smith was tracking the van," Clyde replied.

"Yes, he was but he broke down," Sarah-Jane said.

"Did Sparky blow his circuits?" Clyde joked.

"Hey!" Skye said snatching the phone from Sarah- Jane, "I would never do that!"

"Well, your powers are a bit… temperamental," Clyde finished, "oh, I know is Mr Smith having a mid-life crisis?" He joked.

"Clyde, can I talk to Rani?" Sarah-Jane snapped accidentally, she needed him to be serious, now was not the time to be messing around.

"Hi, what's the matter Sarah-Jane?" Rani said, confiscating the phone from Clyde's grip.

"Do you know where you are?" Sarah-Jane enquired.

"No, but the van is stopping, I'll phone you when I figure out where we are, okay?" Rani said hanging up, hoping Sarah-Jane was satisfied with that answer. The van stopped suddenly, Rani and Clyde clutched the back of the van to avoid being thrown towards the front of the van. Soon the door swung open and two people dragged a mysterious box out of the van, Rani and Clyde took this vital opportunity to go out and explore. They had no idea where they were that was the truth of the matter, all they could see was miles and a small road that didn't look like it was connected to any motorway, one thing was sure they weren't anywhere near Bannerman Road.

"Clyde where are we?" Rani asked.

"How am I supposed to know?" Clyde ventured in return, "but at a wild guess we're at Waterloo Road comprehensive," he said reading off a sign that he had spotted from the corner of his eye. Clyde and Rani walked towards the school, still unsure about their whereabouts, Rani was just about to get her phone out, when they were spotted by a couple who as Rani correctly assumed went to Waterloo Road.

"Hey! Are you the new pupils mum and Byrne were talking about?" The boy asked, both Clyde and Rani looked taken aback by the boy's bluntness.

"No we-" Rani said trying to compose herself.

"Don't be silly Rani," Clyde said narrowing his eyes, "sorry we were playing opposites in the car to pass the time you see, so yes means no and no means yes, can you show us the way?" He asked before nudging Rani sharply in the ribs and gesturing for her to be quiet. The couple who introduced themselves as Connor and Imogen, showed them to the head teachers office, before leaving them to their own devices.

Rani noted that they had Scottish accents, so it was likely that they were in Scotland, but where in Scotland were they? Scotland wasn't exactly small, and thanks to Clyde's distractions in the journey she wasn't quite sure how long they had spent in the van.

"Clyde Langer why did you do that?" Rani said annoyed.

"Isn't it obvious? The two men from the van came inside the building, something strange is happening, your dad is likely to be held hostage here…"

"But we didn't see dad come in!" Rani exclaimed, "Can we at least look around before getting enrolled?" She asked fully aware that Clyde owed her big time.

"Fine, I'll try and stall Byrne, and you check out the van, oh, and inform Sarah-Jane where we are okay?" Clyde suggested, Rani disappeared down the corridor hoping that she wouldn't get too lost; she very narrowly avoided being spotted by the school secretary.

"Good morning you must be Clive Lawson," Michael said holding out his hand, "my name is Mr Byrne, and I'm head teacher of Waterloo Road," Clyde froze, he didn't know a lot of things, but one thing was for sure; his name wasn't Clive Lawson, how was he supposed to be someone he knew nothing about? "And where are your parents and your cousin; Rowan?"

Clyde froze, what was he supposed to say now? His mother was back in Bannerman Road and his best friend (or cousin as Mr Byrne referred to her as) was investigating the back of a van, sadly he didn't think either of those answers would go down very well…

**A/N Well just so you know at this moment in time Michael is head, Janeece is the secretary, and Tom, Chalky, Scout, Sian will also be making the odd appearance, shortly after Chalky adopts Kevin :) Will Clyde take the alias of Clive Lawson?** **Where is Mr Chandra? And whatever happened to Mr Smith?**

**Please review/ add to favourites/ alerts it makes my day :) not to mention it sends me up to cloud nine (plus I hear they have much better Wi-Fi!)**

**Next update; Wednesday.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

Rani raced from the secretary's office to the school Yard, the van was still there, as she approached the door swung open, it was very strange that, the fact that the door was still open, before she could go in and investigate her phone started ringing dramatically. May she just add that her phone and the person calling her had the worst timing in the world, Clyde was crazy, completely bonkers, what was he trying to achieve by getting them enrolled? That would make things a bazillion times worse!

But then again it would make the whole snooping around and uncovering the mystery thing far easier if they had an alibi… Wait, was she seriously considering Clyde's mad-cap plan?

"Rani, where are you?" A voice echoed from her bag, it must've rubbed across her bag, resulting the answer button going off, the words spoken were said in a quiet tone, but they were quietly demanding, Rani picked the phone up and put it to her ear carefully.

"Sarah-Jane, I'm at Waterloo Road School in Greenock," she said glaring at the prying eyes of the year sevens who didn't know the meaning of the word privacy.

"Greenock!? Why are you there?" Sarah- Jane replied.

"Well, school's closed remember, Clyde and I are getting enrolled there," Rani said, debating on whether to tell the entire truth, but at the moment she was on the end of too many watchful glares, gosh was she that nosy when she was that age?

"Waterloo Road…" Sarah- Jane muttered absentmindedly.

"Look can you come here? I found a great idea for your article…" Rani said empathising the word 'article' it was their language to notify Sarah-Jane that something strange was happening. She hung up quickly and explored the vacant van, it was completely empty, and the occupants had obviously ransacked it before it could be explored by prying eyes of school-children.

She hopped in the van looking for any sign of a clue; handprints, footprints, pieces of paper that were lying about, but there was nothing, the van was completely desolate.

"We've got you now missus," a voice said and two strong arms were wrapped around Rani as she felt her hands being tied together making moving about an almost impossible task, she was there prisoner now and she had no way out.

* * *

"Waterloo Road, Waterloo Road," Sarah-Jane mumbled sub-consciously, "tell me Skye where have you heard that name before?" She asked curiously.

"It's the name of the school in the newspaper," Skye replied remembering the conversation they had shared only this morning, "remember Felicity Mellor and Philip Ryan used to go there," she supplied, Sarah-Jane's eyes widened.

"Yes that's right, but why Waterloo Road? Why are they there?" Sarah-Jane said annoyed at the lack of information, "something must be going on there," she concluded walking to the centre of the attic, "Mr Smith we need you," she said but she got no response, Mr Smith's systems had completely shut down, the mystery deepened further.

"Skye, get your coat, we need to go to Waterloo Road," Sarah-Jane said grabbing her car keys, and heading into the car, they travelled fast, luckily it was school hours so there was no traffic, and Sarah-Jane shamefully admitted that she broke the speed limit numerous times, normally she was a careful driver, but this was no normal day.

"Here we are Skye, Waterloo Road," Sarah-Jane said parking the car, and getting a full blown image of the school, there didn't seem to be anything major out of place, but you could never be sure with things like this.

* * *

Clyde paused for a second, "whose Rowan?" He asked in what he thought was a clueless voice; sadly it looked like it was the wrong thing to say as Mr Byrne eyed him with intense suspicion inked on his face.

"She's your cousin," he said spelling out every syllable of the sentence patiently as if he was speaking to a child, "Rowan Chandler." He said, and Clyde coughed to mask his laugh, surely he couldn't be serious? Chandler just sounded so much like Chandra which just so happened to be Rani's surname. Coincidence, probably not, in his sixteen years of existence Clyde had learnt one thing; there were no coincidences.

"Uh," Clyde murmured trying not to stutter; he couldn't let his confidence fall, if his confidence fell then the pretence would be over before it had even begun. Michael was looking at him with a challenging stare, Clyde had to think of a comeback quick, "Oh, yeah," He said carelessly, "Rowan it's just that we call her Ro…" He said, disappointed by his comeback, but 'Ro' was just a shortened version of 'Rowan' or 'Rosy,' wait! "Rosy, yeah we call her Rosy."

Phew, that was close Michael still didn't look entirely convinced but he accepted the lie which Clyde referred to as weak, "well where are they now?"

Clyde looked around the room for a sudden spark of inspiration, it was clean; really unnaturally clean, not a single paper or file was out of place, and the walls were cream with no small specks of dirt. But somehow it suited Mr Byrne he was a man that gave of the impression that everything was under control, on his desk lay a 'Windows' manual, it looked as if it had been chucked on the desk without a second thought, and it almost gave the room an aura of messiness.

"Windows," Clyde spluttered, "they're buying windows," He finished.

"Don't houses already have windows?" Michael asked his tone clear and disbelieving.

"Yeah, I mean curtains," Clyde said lamely, "hey what did the man say when he went to the curtain store?" He asked Mr Byrne looked less than amused but the words were spilling out of his mouth, "can I buy curtains for my computer? I bought windows!" Clyde finished, it was just pure luck that the joke just happened to be playing tricks on his mind at that particular time, the Mr Byrne's lips twitched as he struggled not to laugh, but keeping his professional opinion in tact he gave a small frown instead.

"Mr Lawson if you aren't going to take your education seriously then I strongly suggests that you apply for another school," Michael said angrily even though he found the joke funny.

"Mr Byrne wait I can explain-," Clyde protested, Mr Byrne didn't listen before collapsing on his chair as he sighed at the time-waster.

The wind rattled on the windows, the door swung open with an almighty bang, it was quite the entrance, and the lone figure stood in the doorway with an air of self-importance, "my name is Sarah-Jane Smith."

Clyde silently hi-fived himself, the timing was perfect, if she had arrived just seconds later then maybe she would've been too late, but luck always seemed to play a part in Sarah-Jane's adventures, she winked at him as he smiled, things were starting to look up.

"Oh, and you must be Clive Lawson and Rowan Chandler's guardian?" Asked Mr Byrne, Sarah-Jane blinked rapidly; she didn't know any Clive or Rowan for that matter, Clyde quickly pointed at himself and she nodded, this was the part she had chosen to play; the part of the guardian.

Well she hadn't actually chosen to play it; the part had been thrust upon her. "Yeah, yeah I am," Sarah-Jane assured him shaking his hand.

"May I ask where Rowan is?" Michael Byrne said delicately moving his hand from Sarah-Jane's strong grip.

"I thought she was with you Cl-Clive," Sarah-Jane said almost spitting out the word 'Clyde' and correcting it at the very last minute, she spat the word out accusingly and glared at Clyde, Rani had gotten themselves into this mess, but Clyde had made the situation a million times worse.

"She went to the bathroom," Clyde said quickly, "she must've got lost," he said, Sarah-Jane hurriedly asked Mr Byrne where the toilets were before hurrying to find Rani but her even temper was on the verge of exploding. Skye was waiting in the reception; Sarah-Jane grabbed her hand and pulled her along, her normally even temper on the verge of exploding.

"Clyde! What was that all about?" She whisper yelled in fear of being heard, even though the bell had gone over five minutes ago.

"Well people in the van took Mr Chandra, took Waterloo Road, it isn't my fault everyone assumed that Rani and I were Clive Lawson and Rowan Chandler, Rani just went to the van to check it out," Clyde said, shrugging worry not apparent on his face.

"Clyde, remember the newspaper the other day? With the murder of those poor kids? Waterloo Road is dangerous," Sarah-Jane said.

"This is exactly why we need to be there!" Clyde replied.

"We have to help them," Skye chipped in helpfully.

Sarah-Jane sighed, Clyde whipped his phone out of his pocket and showed her the video, she stared in astonishment, "occults," she whispered, "we need to find Rani now!" She said fear rising in her voice with a sense of urgency; they went round to the school yard, only to discover that the van was missing.

"The vans gone," Clyde whispered, and when they looked around there was no sign that a van had been there at all, but more importantly where was Rani?

* * *

Three people were seated around one table, there was one vacant chair, Melissa couldn't bring herself to look at it, she had gotten used to the chair being empty whilst Philip was at university, but now she had to bring herself to realise that, that chair would never be filled with her son's happy, carefree presence.

She took the daintiest nibble of her food, and smiled; however it was a fake smile, it seemed doubtful that she would ever smile again.

**_A/N please read and review please! It makes my day!_**

**_Special thanks to StellaPriceFan, and my real life friends; Rhi and Megan :) You're all awesome!_**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer; I don't own the Sarah Jane Adventures nor Waterloo Road. **

**Chapter Four. **

The three silhouettes huddled in a corner of the yard, panic was etched on their faces, and uncertainty was inked in their voices.

"Rani, RANI!" The tallest of the three figures yelled, "Where is she?" He said, the last question being rhetorical, an answer was simply not demanded but it was wondered, "HJ12 QWA, HJ12 QWA," he repeated to himself, after Rani had accused him of being useless he had quietly repeated the registration plate in his head until it was inserted into his brain. "What are we going to do Sarah-Jane," he asked with a final plea in his voice.

"I don't know," was Sarah-Jane's eventual answer, but after the long delay of waiting she still sounded uncertain, Rani was missing and there seemed evidence to suggest that she had been in the van, but why didn't she get out of the van when she knew it was moving? "We'll have to go to the police…" She finally said she didn't often mix with the police, as she knew they wouldn't believe even half of her troubles, but most of what she did was unbelievable to say the least.

Then she dialled her phone to make a phone that should've been made a long time ago; well a couple of hours ago to say the least, "Hello, Mrs Langer, it's Sarah-Jane Smith here," Sarah-Jane said, Clyde silently cursed himself his mum was going to go mental to say the least.

"Sarah-Jane?" Asked Mrs Langer curiously, "is Clyde with you, he should've been home an hour ago!" She said panic rising in her voice.

"Yes Clyde is here, the school mysteriously closed earlier today, I had some work to do in Scotland, Greenock to be exact, Rani and Clyde joined me I'm sorry they should've asked you first," Sarah-Jane said trying to stick to the truth as much as possible, at least she could say what she said was partially true, which was better than nothing.

"Sarah-Jane, I was going to tell Clyde this afternoon, but…. My father's critically ill and I'm going to visit him, I didn't want it to interfere with his studies, and I was going to ask if you can look after him, but if the schools closed…" Mrs Langer said, and Sarah-Jane repeated everything to Clyde who nodded, slightly surprised.

"Of course I'll look after Clyde," Sarah-Jane said, "I'll be in Scotland for the next few weeks, and since their school has closed, I'm enrolling Sky at Waterloo Road, would you like me to enrol Clyde there as well?" She asked.

"That would be great! I'm sorry to ask this much of you but you were a brilliant mum to Luke! Any idea why the school closed…?" Mrs Langer finished, before muttering "where have I heard of Waterloo Road School before…?" And then hanging up.

Sarah-Jane put the phone back in the bag and then turned to turned to face Clyde and Sky who had overheard the entire conversation, "looks like you are going to Waterloo Road after all Clyde," Sarah-Jane said. But neither Clyde nor Sarah-Jane remarked at how strange everything was,; Mr Chandra being taken to Waterloo Road, two new pupils with names remarkably similar to Clyde and Rani and the news which meant that Mrs Langer had to go out of the country.

"Come on let's get you enrolled…" Sarah-Jane said gesturing towards Clyde and Sky. They returned to the heads office noting the questioning gaze from Mr Byrne but Sarah-Jane had her reply already sorted before he could begin to open his mouth. "Rowan wasn't feeling well so she went home…" She replied simply, "this is Skylar my daughter," she said quickly inventing an alias for Sky, even though Sky could simply be referred to as an abbreviation of Skylar, it was the closest name to Sky that she could find. Plus that way it left room for mistakes if someone called her 'Sky' instead of 'Skylar.' In a world where everything was unknown to her she found it most helpful to create alias that you could fall back on and today was no exception.

"Yes, yes, I'm very sorry to hear about Rowan, I hope she'll be in school tomorrow, yes? I believe Skylar is in year seven, correct? And you are Clive and Rowan's aunt?" Mr Byrne said, but it looked as if all his questions were simply rhetorical as he didn't demand an answer. "Sonya!" He said sliding the window that connected his study to his secretary's office, "can we have Clive Lawson and Skylar Smith's timetable please?" The trio and Mr Byrne stood up as the made a way to get their timetables, "Connor!" Mr Byrne yelled motioning towards the year 12, who was trying very hard to sneak through the school unnoticed, timekeeping was his biggest fault, "this is Clive Lawson, and he's joining the sixth form can you take him to Mr Clarkson's English class?" Michael said knowing full well that Connor's class was the one adjacent to Clive's.

Clyde wanted to protest in outrage, what about Rani? He couldn't just leave her, could he? He looked at Sarah-Jane who was avoiding eye contact, she looked deep in thought, that could only mean one thing; Sarah-Jane Smith had a plan, and she wasn't about to let Clyde, Sky or Rani down, now was too late to start picking up bad habits.

"Hey mate," Clyde said gesturing towards Connor, "why did the book join the police?" He questioned using his wild sense of humour to break the ice, Connor just shrugged in reply, "he wanted to go undercover!" Clyde said laughing hysterically trying to calm his nerves, he clutched his sides as the laughter turned to pain but the worry didn't go away.

They could hear screams of laughter from Clyde just outside, but Mr Byrne wasn't paying attention, or he was trying not to anyway, "Sonya can you take Sky Mr Chalk's class please?" Mr Byrne said before ushering Sarah-Jane and Sky out of his office in quite a secretive manner.

"Sarah-Jane what about Rowan?" Sky said once Mr Byrne was out of earshot.

"Look I'll find her," Sarah-Jane said, "you can count on me," she whispered, "bye Sky!" She finished with a note of finality before searching for her missing friend.

**A/N Sorry this is so short, I went back to school Yesterday :P On another note, Waterloo Road is starting back tomorrow! Who's excited, thank you for all the reviews, because reviews make my day plus it sends me to cloud nine (which has far better Wi-Fi than down here!)**

**This is set after Chalky fosters Kevin in WR :P I'm going to upload next Wednesday (with a longer update) but if I feel inspired; by your reviews and if I have my sudden spark of inspiration I may update on Sunday also (if I get two or more reviews I'll definitely update!) **


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